Data processing systems such as a personal computer, laptop computer, pervasive computing device such as a personal data assistant (PDA), smartphone, or other mobile terminal typically display data or content in a display window of a user interface. The content for display may be larger than the display window. Various controls have been used to manipulate the content in the display window so that the user can control what portion of the data is displayed.
Display windows typically have controls that are peripheral to the display window so that the content can be manipulated without interfering with the display window. For example, peripheral controls on a display window may include scroll bars that extend along the horizontal and vertical periphery of the display window. A scrolling icon within the scroll bar can be selected and moved by controls such as a mouse that can manipulate a cursor to select the scrolling icon or the icon can be selected by a user touching the display window on a touch sensitive screen. Scroll bars may also allow a user to select a region above or below the scrolling icon to move the content in the display in a vertical or horizontal direction. This can allow “page” by “page” scrolling such that the content moves in increments that are about the area of the page in one direction. Other examples of controls that may be peripheral to the display window include control icons that perform some function when selected by the user. Functions performed by control icons can include printing or saving a document, opening a new document, formatting text, reloading or refreshing the content, loading selected content for viewing and the like.
Data processing systems have been reduced in size so that, in some instances, systems can be held in a single hand such as in the case of PDAs and smartphones. The display area in such devices may be relatively small, and the content for display may be significantly larger than the display area. Users may be required to scroll both horizontally and vertically to locate and view information.
Scrolling using conventional scroll bars in such an environment can require the user to perform separate actions to manipulate both the horizontal and the vertical scroll bars. For example, when the content is displayed within a display area on a handheld device, instead of seeing the entire page or the desired information in the display area, the user typically scrolls to navigate line by line or “page” by “page” along one axis. Then, the user can repeat those actions to move along the other axis in order to locate the desired content. Similar problems may be experienced even with relatively large display windows particularly when the content is large, such as in a spreadsheet.